Children's Access to Space – an Important Piece of the Swedishenvironmental Heritage

Children's access to space has been part of most Swedish children's upbringing, because Sweden is a sparsely populated country with close access to nature for most people. Today Stockholm, the capital, is growing rapidly and people will choose to live in central parts of the city, seeing urbanity as a new modern lifestyle of great value to them. Young families will choose to remain in the city centre also when they have children and also when they realize that open spaces for their children to play in are not found near-by. This development will have consequences for how children are brought up and what competences they develop. In my presentation I will draw on different studies comparing how inner city children and children living less centrally in Stockholm use and value their near environment as well as how countryside children of different social groups use their environment. I will discuss conceptual differences of place when seen from the perspective of nature and from the perspective of a social arena.